Shenzhen goes above and under

As soon as the nod for Meituan to resume its drone operations came through, Zhang immediately ordered his team back into action. His "airport" station — on an open platform on the Longgang mall's fifth floor — was soon buzzing with activity again. Minutes later, an employee picked up two bottles of soft drinks ordered by clients from a shop downstairs.

Packing the drinks in a box specially designed for air transportation, another worker set a drone off after hooking the consignment to its bottom. The vehicle soon vanished into the air. Located at the terminus of the drone's route is a parcel locker that's nearest to the consumer's address, explains Zhang. His team can make an average of up to 300 deliveries a day. Whether an order is assigned to a drone or a rider is determined by the system that judges the distance involved and traffic conditions at the time, he says.

Liu Shuo, head of Meituan's commercial drone strategy unit, told China Daily that the unmanned air vehicles can easily fly over tunnels, bridges and other urban terrains that may take delivery workers on the ground a lot of time to navigate.

Shenzhen's efforts to tap the low-attitude economy represent a move in the right direction as the city "opened more airspace for business use in the past few years, and simplified relevant applications," she said.

Deliveries by drones, however, are still impeded by certain restrictions, such as not being allowed to take off in adverse weather conditions. Liu said she believes they're still a good supplement to ground deliveries, adding that Meituan is also trying to use drones to transport medical and emergency supplies.